Adjustable extension socket



ay 24, l938 c. BlRDsu-:YE ET AL 2,118,785

l ADJUSTABLE EXTENSION SOCKET Filed Aug. 1l, 1957 llllllllll` Patente my 24, '193 n autres ADJUSTABLE Ex'rrrsron 'r Clarence Birdseye and Harold Douglas i'i'ii Gloucester, and Walter N. Heath, Rockport, Mass., assignors to Birdseye Electric ilorporation, Dover, Del., a corporation of Deia Application August 1l, i937, Serial No. ltl

Claims.

This invention relates to extension sockets for the general purpose of making any desired adjustment as to size, location or angle between a fixture already installed or available and an prominent circumferential corrugations, form# electric lamp to be mounted therein. More particularly, the invention consists in an improved extension socket having an vadjustable section of flexible non-resilient sheet metal which is eiective at all times and in all positions of adjustment to enclose and protect the electrical connections contained in the socket and which will readily permit adjustment both axially and angularly.

The adjustable extension socket of our inven` tion is particularly useful when used in connection with electric lamps having upon a part of the bulb area a reiiecting coating designed to` concentrate and direct the light of the lamp in a defined beam. 'When our adjustable extension socket is included in an installation, the lamp may be screwed into it and its flexible section may he then readily deformed so that the lamp may be held at the desired angle and its beamA of light thus directed upon any selected area. When the lamp is used with an external rei-lector requiring close adjustment of the longitudinal or axial position of the lamp, this also is facilitated by the extension socket ofl our invention in that the exible section thereof may be collapsed or elongated to bring the lamp into a position of focus. l

An important feature of our invention consists in a tubular or sleeve-like section in an extension socket which is made of flexible, nonresilient sheet metal and includes a plurality of ing, in eect,`a metallic bellows section. This presents the advantage that it may be easily and inexpensively manufactured and incorporated in the complete extension socket. As herein shown it is insulated from the electrical connections contained within the socket and is edective at all times as a protection for them.

In assembling the parts of the extension socket of our invention the end portions of the flexible bellows section are connected, with the interposition of suitable -insulating elements, at one end to -a base member adapted to be inserted in any standard xture and at the other end to a s ocket for a lamp base. Flanged sleeves or thimbles of insulating material are preferably, though not necessarily, employed for this purpose and these are so designed as to carry or support the metallic portions of the base and of the socket through which connections are made with the. fixture on the one hand and the lamp on the other hand.

These and other featuresof the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description l of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing in which,

Fig. l is a view in elevation, partly in section, of the component parts of the socket separated one from another, and

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation showing the socket in use .and in one position of angular adjustment, and

Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional View of the y socket.

The component parts of the socket will be first described and then the manner in which they are assembled in the complete article will be explained. One end of the socket comprises a metal base lll, spun of sheet metal with a thread rolled into its side Walls and a slight dare in its open end, as is usual in a lamp base. The upper end of the base as shown in Figure l is closed by a cap or iller of insulating material il molded to shape and having a metal terminal disk or button it at the center thereof. While the base herein shownis threaded it may be shaped to Ht any conventional form of fixture and to include correspondingly locatedterminals.

Designed to t within the base l@ is an insulating Asleeve I3 .of porcelain, Bakelite or other plastic or ceramic materiell and this is provided at its lower endwith a circumferential flange it. The body of the flanged insulating sleeve is 'threaded to receive externally the thread of the base iii and it is also provided with a longitudinal slot it which serves as a wire passage in the assembled socket. One or more fibre washers it and il are provided to nt over the body of the sleeve it and to register with the daring end of the base it.

The adjustable section of the socket comprises a sleeve it of thin exible but non-resilient metal. It includes an end flange it which is arranged to iit over and enclose the ange it of ing a series of shallow circumferential corrugations rolled therein. The outside diameter of the deep corrugations 2t and the shallow corrugations in the lange 2l is substantially equal. Beneath the sleeve i8 is shown in Fig. l a thimble 22 of porcelain, Bakelite or thelikewha 55 Cil of screws 25 which are adapted to pass through the passages in the base of the thimble 22 to se- Finally there is shownl cure the cap in place. in Fig. 1 a center terminal member 26 which in the assembled socket is secured in place in the bottom of the thimble 22 and spaced from the walls of the metal cap 24.

In assembling the parts above described to provide the adjustable extension socket of our invention, the flanged insulating sleeve I? is first placed within the metal sleeve I8 withits flange I4 enclosed within the end flange 1,9 of the sleeve and its body projecting upwardly. The washers I6 and Il are threaded upon or\slipped over the body of the sleeve and clamped in place by having the base I screwed upon the threaded body thereof. The metal cap 24 and terminal 26 are assembled within the porcelain thimble 22 and then the base portion of the thimble having the circumferential ribs is inserted 'within the flange 2| of the metal sleeve I8 and the latter is spun or otherwise clenched to form a permanent connection with the thimble 22. Meanwhile, a lead Wire 29 is extended from the center terminal 26 to the terminal disk I2 and connected thereto by solder 28. A second lead wire 30 is led from one side ofmthe cap 24 through the metal sleeve I8, and through the longitudinal groove I5 of the insulating sleeve I3. It is then brought out be tween the two washers I6 and I1 and secured to the side of the base I0 by a drop of solder 21 thus completing` the electric circuit of the socket.

In Fig. 2 the socket is shown in use, being screwed into awa1l or ceiling socket 30, shown in dotted lines, and having a lamp 29 screwed into the metal cap 24. The lamp is shown as having a metallic coating over a portion of its inner wall so disposed as to direct the rays of the lamp in a dened and concentrated beam. The lamp as a whole is shown in a position of angular adjust. ment, inclined about 30 to the vertical. It will be understood that the extension socket as a unit may be screwed into any already-installed wall socket or the likeand that the lamp may be screwed into the open end of the socket. Before or after the lamp isqln place, the extension socket may be angularly adjusted by merely pressing its outer end inthe desired direction, the exible corrugations 20 acting as yielding bellows section. A

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An extension socket for lamps, comprising a `conductive threaded basehaving an' insulated contact thereon, a conductive lamp-receiving' socket having an insulated contact therein, an intermediate section permanently united to the base and socket and having a plurality of flexible circular corrugations therein readily deformable to hold the socket in different positions of angular adjustment with respect to the base, and separate electrical connections from said base and its contact to the socket and its contact.

' 2. An adjustable extension socket for lamps, comprising a exibie non-resilient sleeve of sheet metalhaving a retaining flange at each end, a support having a 'conductive threaded shell thereon and having an insulated connectionV with one flange on the sleeve, a metallic socket for a lamp having an insulated connection with the other flange of the sleeve and an electrical connection with the shell, and a central connection insulated from said metallic socket and having`a terminal contact insulated from the shell.

3. An adjustable extension socket for lamps, comprising a exible'non-resilient sleeve of sheet metal having a plurality of exible and non-resilient corrugations therein, a threaded metallic base projecting beyond one end of said sleeve and presenting an insulated end terminal, an insulated thimble projecting beyond the other end of said sleeve and containing a lamp receiving socket electrically connected to said base and a center connection associated with said socket and electrically connectedl to the insulated terminal of the base.

4. An adjustable extension socket for lamps, comprising a tubular metallic bellows section having an inturned ange at one end, a threaded insulating sleeve having a flange enclosed by said metallic section and engaged with the flange thereof, a metallic base threaded upon said sleeve and acting to draw the two flanges into contact, a terminal insulated from said metallic base and electrical conducting lamp engaging members carried by said metallic section and insulated therefrom and electrically connected to the base and to the terminal.

o 5. An adjustable extension socket for lamps, comprising a tubular metallic bellows section having an inturned flange at one end, a threaded insulating sleeve having a ange covered by the ange of the metallic section, a washerinsulation encircling the insulating sleeve, a metallic base threaded upon said sleeve and acting to clamp said washer between itself and the ange oi the metallic section, a terminal insulated from said metallic base, a lamp receiving member having two electrical conducting portions held by the other end of said section and electrical connections including a wire attached at one end to one of said portions, passing out through said washer insulation and attached at its other end to said base and a second electrical connection between the other of said portions and the terminal insulated from the base.

6. An adjustable -extensionsocket for lamps,

comprising a flexible bellows section having an inturned flange at its upper end, a anged insulating sleeve having a threaded upwardly extending stem passing outthrough said flange, a metallic base threaded upon said stem and serving both to clamp the sleeve and bellows section.

ing independent electrical connections from ity to the base and to said end terminal.

7. An adjustable extension socket forelectric lamps, comprising a threaded base, an end termivnal insulated therefrom, a lamp receiving socket mnterinl with circumferential co r u,

nuwe

in, d heine deformable whereby the bese and seckei: may be bent et en cngle with resmct to each other, nndvmenns for' electricelly connecting the terminada of the lense with those of the im N., H. UGM 

